ON A PERSONAL NOTE

I hope you experienced great gratitude during the Thanksgiving holiday.  I have so much to be thankful for, including having you in my life.  My 25 year old son came home for the holiday with his new girlfriend (whom I adore).  He was ecstatic as he was just hired as a full time employee for Microsoft. He is a programmer there working on games and the Windows phone interface.  This is his life’s dream and I too am delighted. Aren’t we all happy!

I also experienced two great losses last month.
First, the loss of Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs created the world in which my life has bloomed.  Both of my “businesses” would not have been possible without the personal computer.  And I have, since the beginning, been a Mac-ophile. I just saw the film “Steve Jobs, the Lost Interview” with my Dad.  It was intimate, thrilling and left me so thankful.  In the film, Steve talks about the commitment to excellence of product.  And we all know his tag line, “insanely great products.”  I’ve always said that a client who chooses a Mac is committed to quality and these are my kind of clients.  We are a different breed.

I also read the official autobiography.  In it Steve talks about the experience of being on the original Mac team.  Although it was intense for all of them, they had the experience of creating something larger than themselves, in an insane time frame and that they didn’t think they could do.  Steve reflects that this journey may have been the experience of a lifetime for each of the team members.

I too have had that experience many times over.  Creating and working for United Teachers-LA in the 70’s, working for est and directly with Werner Erhard in the late 70’s, The Institute for Synergy in Action and the LA World Hunger Event in the early 80’s, having and raising my son as a devoted single mother and partnering with two great spiritual teachers to expand and manage their communities (Master Charles and Rabbi Stan Levy).  Each was a once in a lifetime experience. How blessed I feel.

I feel so grateful that I have been able to earn my living almost all of my life doing what I feel most passionately about.  And I am passionate about Peggi Sturm & Associates.  I love what I do and with whom I do it (staff and clients!)  I would not be who I am today without the inventions and passions of Steve Jobs.  Who could ask for anything more in this lifetime!

Second, the loss of my trip to Spain.

I was disappointed that I did NOT get to go on my trip of a lifetime to Spain for the Global Microcredit Summit.  Instead I had emergency hernia surgery.  I’m rrecuperating well and aiming to be running at full speed in another 2 weeks.

In fact, I’m going to San Marcos and the Chopra Center for the New Year’s Holiday for my quarterly Ayurvedic massage and retreat!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!